This week at the McSpedden Library we celebrated International Dot Day! Dot Day is a celebration of the amazingly powerful book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.
From the Dot Day website:
“International Dot Day, a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration, began when teacher Terry Shay introduced his classroom to Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot on September 15, 2009.
The Dot is the story of a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark”. What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing, which has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe.
And each year on International Dot Day – with the help of people just like you –the inspiration continues. What started as a story in the pages of a book is transforming teaching and learning around the world as people of all ages re-discover the power and potential of creativity in all they do.”
All this week we have been connecting and collaborating with other schools all over the country! We have connected via Skype and Google Hangout. Our students were read The Dot by our principal Heather Meek, our AP Kranti Singh, and our instructional coach Krystle Mott during the first week of school. Then we also watched the YouTube video and gave the students an opportunity to think about how they could make a mark on their school, their family, their community, or the world! They used these activity sheets to make their creations: Kinder and 1st Grade, 2nd and 3rd grades, and 4th and 5th grades.
You can see on this Google Map below all of the places we connected with:
Here are pictures of all of our connections as well: